British high street sales boom in April

Britain's shoppers returned to the High Street in their droves in the first half of April, with figures from the Confederation of British Industry showing their first positive reading since March 2008.

The 'balance of sales' figure rose to plus-three in April, from minus-44 in March and is the best result since January 2008 and the biggest monthly increase ever. Zero is the cut-off point between a decrease and growth in sales.

The improvement in trading conditions came as a surprise to commentators, although there were better signs earlier this month after results from Debenhams and Thorntons.

Retailers were helped in the month by the Easter bank holiday and good weather, with all supermarkets seeing rising volumes and the majority of footwear and clothing outlets in positive territory. Motor traders saw sales fall for the eleventh month in a row, although the level was slightly better than in previous surveys.

Some observers poured cold water on the numbers, however, pointing to the Easter distortion - it was in March last year - and the CBI’s forecasts showing that retailers themselves do not expect the improvement to last, forecasting a decline to minus 15 per cent.

Andy Clarke, chairman of the CBI's distributive trades panel and the chief operating officer of Asda, said: "With unemployment rising and growth in average earnings down, consumers remain very wary, and retailers themselves think that sales will drop again in May."

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Howard Wheeldon, senior strategist at BGC Partners, in the Daily Telegraph: "As we are forced to change and adapt our bad spending ways, put affordability first and further cut spending, it could be as long as ten years before signs appear of a real and sustainable recovery."

Jonathan Loynes, Capital Economics, in the Times: "These improvements might point to a genuine pick-up in high street activity, perhaps as the extra spending power freed up by the sharp fall in inflation offsets the negative effects of rising unemployment and falling house prices - but we would hesitate before reaching that conclusion. Not only is the survey often quite volatile from month to month, but the general conditions facing consumers do not look consistent to us with solid spending growth" ·